17/207 BANGKOK (TNA) - Thailand's Energy Ministry will put more effort into encouraging more communities to manufacture bio-diesel after discovering that only one-third of the country's used  cooking oil is collected and recycled for use in making bio-diesel for local consumption.

Energy Minister Piyasvasti Amaranand said it is his ministry's policy to encourage each locality to produce bio-diesel from used vegetable oil, after it was found that only 25 million litres of 74 million litres of vegetable cooking oil was used to make bio-diesel.

If the nation's entire annual volume of cooking oil would be recycled as bio-diesel, the country could save about Bt1.57 billion yearly on imports of diesel oil, he said.

Initially, the ministry targeted encouraging local production in 400 communities nationwide to manufacture bio-diesel from reclaimed cooking oil within this year, with each community making between 100-150 litres of bio-diesel daily.

A community in Chiang Mai province has successfully manufactured 150 litres of bio-diesel daily for use in the community and to sell to nearby communities.

The ministry has offered funding to Chiang Mai University to research palm growing in the North so that more bio-diesel could be produced for commercial purposes. (TNA)